Refugees

The government’s hate campaign against the refugees will soon achieve its goal: on October 2, Hungarians will cast their votes in an unnecessary, expensive and inhumane referendum.

In this core area of the work programme “Europe for Citizens” activities are pooled that focus diversly on various aspects of the European asylum and refugee policy.

We cannot quarantine ourselves from the instability that reigns south and east of Europe. Europe must strike a new balance between idealistic foreign policy and realism. The opening address of the 17th Annual Foreign Policy Conference. 

Xenophobic sentiments are traditionally high in Hungary but the reasons for Fidesz’ harsh stance on immigration are domestic.

In Bulgaria, public opinion approves the patriotic vigilante mobs, which trap refugees crossing Bulgaria’s border.

Before the Spanish reelections on 26. June 2016 the democratisation of the European institutions and the solution of the refugee crisis became relevant issues of the political debate.

The Hungarian government will hold a referendum in order to signal to Brussels that refugees are not welcome in Hungary. The referendum cannot influence EU policies, and may not even be legal.

Opening remarks on the occasion of the "EU Quo Vadis?" Conference of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Berlin on May 26th, 2016 titled "Crossing Boundaries in European Asylum and Refugee Policy".

In France economic and social problems, terrorism and internal security are viewed as more important than the migrant crisis. Seeing the migrant flows as a result of conflicts in the Arab world they deal with the problem with military assistance.

The EU needs a proper strategy that allows migrants a legal form of access. The current situation of the camps in and around the EU is unacceptable. The issue of clarifying immigration regulations for the EU must not be put off any longer.